Green Downtowns – Environmentally-Responsible Practices for Business Districts

The ”greening” of downtown has become increasingly common across North America and Europe. Green downtowns promote environmentally-responsible practices and offer a range of economic advantages. While this trend is partially fueled by an overall growth in “green” consumers it is primarily driven by the fact that a green downtown is a desirable place to live, work, and visit. There is no specific formula to make a downtown green: indeed, this effort is largely based upon the unique attributes and passionate creativity of eachcommunity. This issue suggests some specific initiatives, ranging from simple to more involved, that can assist your community advance its own greening of downtown

Valuing Downtown Employees

The daytime employee population is a very important market segment for many downtowns. These employees, typically office workers, can generate significant sales for downtown businesses while solidifying downtown’s lead role in the regional economy as a place of expertise and a place of interaction. Many downtown districts are faced with the challenge of acquainting employees with nearby retail, dining and service establishments. Showing appreciation for these employees is one way to connect with them and make them feel part of the broader downtown community

The Local Costs and Benefits of Wal-Mart

What are the local costs and benefits of a Wal*Mart store opening up in a community and how are they distributed across the different groups in the community? To consider this question, Ohio State University researchers Elena G. Irwin and Jill Clark, have reviewed the recent academic literature on this topic. This article summarizes some of these findings and their implications for consumers, workers, other businesses and the public sector.

Retire Downtown – A Market Emerges for Active Living Downtown

With 78.2 million baby boomers poised to retire, the market for retirement homes in the coming years will be at an alltime high. More and more retirees are looking to retire downtown, taking advantage of a mix of amenities, accessibility, value, and sense of community. This article identifies serveral of the benefits to the condo market in an urban environment.

Developing Effective Business Recruitment Materials

Once a market analysis has been completed, a community can use the information to develop business recruitment materials that showcase market potential. Recruitment materials can be a useful tool to attract usiness investment to their business district. Business investment could include new or expanded retail, services, restaurants, housing, offices and other uses. These materials can also serve business retention and expansion efforts. This article explores some of the most common elements of successful business recruitment materials.

Starting a Cultural Heritage Tourism Program

One of the most promising opportunities provided by a historic perspective is the potential to create a market for cultural heritage tourism. Cultural heritage tourism is an industry created when a community promotes its historic places and stories as tourist destinations. This article discusses the four critical steps to starting a heritage tourism program.

Downtown Revitalization and Enhancing Sense of Place- Remembering the Work of Kent Robertson

Kent Robertson, a leader in the field of downtown revitalization, has passed away at the age of 53. Kent has worked in the field since 1980 as a researcher, teacher, speaker, writer, and consultant. He was widely published and a frequent conference presenter and keynote speaker. He believed the heart of a community was its original downtown. His nationally respected work reached communities across the country.A summary of one of his presentations on downtowns’ sense of place is provided here. This summary, a reprint of the October 2000 issue, provides valuable ideas on how we can make downtown more attractive to both consumers and businesses.

Space Utilization on Main Street

This presentation was given by Matt Kures at the 2007 National Main Street Conference. It discussess business structure and placement that will foster a downtown.

Innovative Downtown Businesses

There is hope for increasing business activity and bringing people back downtown. A number of vibrant communities have retained and increased retail activity in their central business districts by focusing on unique and innovative businesses. These vibrant downtowns often have a number of retail and service establishments that are able to successfully co-exist with the retail giants by building on their downtown’s unique sense of place and by offering products and services not found in the big box stores. The Innovative Downtown Business clearing house maintained by UW-Extension CCED can be found at https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/innovativedowntownbusinesses/

The Importance of Culture and Heritage to Downtown Economics

When creating strategies to increase community economic vitality, it may not seem appropriate to look to the past. But, the historic perspective can hold the key to future economic gains for small communities across the country. This article looks at the benefits gained through marrying the past and the present.